Are Professional Athletes Too Paranoid? — Sports Survey of the Day

After being hailed a hero, South African Olympic runner Oscar Pistorius may spend the rest of his life in jail for (allegedly) murdering his girlfriend.

Pistorius isn't the first athlete to get in trouble because of guns, though his case is far more serious. Are professional athletes getting paranoid?

We all remember Plaxico Burress's fall from grace after shooting himself in the leg with an illegal firearm. Gilbert Arenas got into major trouble after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards' locker room. And just this week Da'Quan Bowers of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was arrested after bringing a gun in his carry-on bag.

We can understand this, to some degree anyway. Professional athletes rich, famous, and possibly play for the rival team—in other words, natural targets for certain types of crazy people. But then again, it's not like they're political leaders who make sense as assassination victims or anything. They just play sports, after all.